Randy Shaw

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Randy Shaw (born 1956) is a lawyer, author and housing activist who has played a leading role in San Francisco politics (and national activism) for the last 25 years. In 1980, while a student at Hastings College of the Law, he founded the Tenderloin Housing Clinic -- a non-profit in San Francisco's Tenderloin district that advocates for low-income tenants. He passed the California Bar Exam in 1982, and has served as the Clinic's Executive Director for the past two decades.

The Tenderloin Housing Clinic has a long list of accomplishments in its 25 years history, such as ending illegal lock-outs of Single Room Occupancy (SRO) tenants, successfully suing slumlords, and enacting legislative change at the state and local levels to help low-income tenants. Always controversial, Shaw's allies and adversaries cannot disagree about the impact he has had.

Shaw is the author of two books, "The Activist's Handbook" (first published in 1996 and similar to Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky), and "Reclaiming America" (first published in 1999.) He is currently working on a third book about the careers of United Farm Workers (UFW) organizers who worked under Cesar Chavez.

In 2004, Shaw started Beyond Chron, an alternative online daily that covers national, state and local politics and is highly critical of the San Francisco Chronicle.